Cameras coming to Interstate 80 toll bridge

Saturday

Sep 29, 2007 at 12:01 AM

Drivers on the Interstate 80 bridge over the Delaware River, get ready for your close-up. A new system of cameras and electronic surveillance gear will be installed in and around the bridge within the year.

DAN BERRETT

Drivers on the Interstate 80 bridge over the Delaware River, get ready for your close-up.

A new system of cameras and electronic surveillance gear will be installed in and around the bridge within the year.

It's part of the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission's project to put up a network of some 250 cameras on its 20 bridges. On Monday, the commission awarded a $20.6 million contract to Mass. Electric Construction Company of Whitestone, N.Y., to design, build and maintain the new detection system.

The project is part of the commission's larger $950 million capital improvement program. The new system will include video surveillance, building access control and intrusion detectors, a central control center and communications systems.

It will also feature "intelligent" video cameras. If, for example, the FBI sends out an alert about a tractor-trailer, the cameras will be able to flag commission security when a vehicle of similar size and shape approaches its bridges, said Pete Peterson, a spokesman with the commission's public relations firm.

The cameras will also be able to note packages or people located in suspicious places.

"If there's an object in a location that shouldn't be there," Peterson said, "it'll say, 'take a look at this'."

The system will keep its high-tech eyes trained on bridges, piers, approach roadways, overpasses and underpasses, toll plazas and the commission's facilities.

The entire system is expected to be designed, installed and operational within the next 18 months. How it will affect traffic has not been determined yet.

But the five most heavily used bridges are first on the list and will be completed within the year, Peterson said.

This includes the I-80 bridge, which ranks second in usage among the commission's bridges. It carries 55,900 vehicles per day, on average. The Interstate 78 bridge near Easton is the most popular.

The cameras may also help track traffic patterns and help anticipate rising river levels near lower approach bridges during floods.

The new system could aid police during episodes like the one that happened earlier this month. A passing motorist said a man who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent was taking photographs of the bridge.

Police questioned the man, who was traveling with his wife and 6-week old infant. They had stopped so that the mother could feed the baby.

Police discovered no evidence that he had been taking pictures, though they found his name on a terrorist watch list.

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